Concepts
Are some of the concepts seen within this story familiar to you? If they are not, you can learn what these concepts are about. In this series, there are certain things that fans of manga/anime will be familiar with, while some others are concepts you can't learn about in most other series until you read this. You've come to the right place to learn cultural thematics of Japan... Concepts Nagasarete Airantou references Nagasarete Airantou (ながされて藍蘭島, Nagasarete Airantō; direct translation: Casted Away, Airan-island) is a popular monthly series by the same author as Cahe Tantei Bu and is being serialized in a different magazine, ever since its debut in the year 2002. With over 100 chapters now, some fans of Cahe may have already taken a look at this series. In the series of Cahe Detective Club, there are some characters who look relatively alike to those in Nagasarete, while some are almost a replica of the original. For example, on the 13th page of chapter 10, the female fighting character Mei-Chun has the similar first name and also the same looks as one of the heroines from Nagasarete Airantou, though the ages are slightly different. There is also some direct references to the Nagasarete series, such as the one at the end of ch22. You'll notice more of these similarities if you read more into the series Nagasarete Airantou. References *One of the biggest reference to the Nagasarete Airantou series is the Touhouin family Shizuka is part of. Touhouin is the same family name for Ikuto, who is the main character of NA. Further to say, Machi and Ayane, who are also part of the Touhouin family in the Cahe series, are identical copies to two girls in the NA series who are from Airan Island. The two girls have the same names, looks, relation and interaction as their counterparts in the Cahe series, except for the fact that their age are switched. In NA, Machi is older, while in Cahe, Ayane is older. *Some of the club captains in the Cahe series also have look-alikes in the Nagasarete Airantou series. *Mei-Mei-Mei, the acrobatic triplet idols, are mentioned in both series. Mei-Mei from Nagasarete Airantou happens to be a sister to the triplet. Meanwhile in the Cahe series, Mei-Fa and Mei-Ran, who are teachers at Kamome and Tsubame respectively, are the older sisters to the triplets and Mei-Mei. *Even the secondary characters from Kamome, who are Sakuya, Yuuto, Touma and Itsuki, have look-alikes in Nagasarete Airantou, in the form of adults. The look alikes to Sakuya, Yuuto and Touma happen to be parents to some of the secondary heroines in NA, while Itsuki's look-alike is lady who has married into the Touhouin family. *Other references have been made on the NA end, which includes the Machi-Ayane relation and the flashback which includes characters with strikingly resemblences to Mana and Naru. More may appear. Heroes series As you will hear from Miyu a lot, the Heroes series is about any character(s) that play(s) a hero-like role in a TV series, usually holding some amazing superpowers. One such example would be Power Rangers in America. In Japan, there is a much larger variety of these Heroes, mostly including characters from the Masked Riders (仮面ライダー Kamen Raidā) series and the Ultraman (ウルトラマン Urutoraman) series. As seen in many other countries, the Heroes series are more for little kids, which would reflect that Miyu herself is still childish. However, there are certain adults who reminisce on the greatest of the Heroes. Clubs Unlike many other school-systems of the world, clubs in Japan are much more active. Most of these clubs occur during the afternoon, but the members can do club-related events at anytime of the day and year, as long as the events follow the school rules. This means the clubs can use their club funds to even go on a trip outside school during the resting days. The club also gets to receive their own clubroom, with the club funded by the school if the club has been verified. If not verified, the club becomes a "circle" and do not received a room, neither is it funded by the school. In this series, there is a wider range of clubs than that are usually seen in Japanese schools, even some that you may never find anywhere else, such as the cafe club. Dagashi Dagashi (駄菓子 dagashi) shops are present in most parts of Japan, usually in a neighborhood-like area, serving as small candy shops to the people of the area. A bit old-fashioned looking, Dagashi shops are like the present-day convenient stores, even though they don't serve the soda and large snacks present in them. The store would hold, as named earlier, small candies, common snacks and little toys that can be bought for a low price. Most of the time, an elderly would be running the stores, sometimes with the assistance of their youngest relatives. The Tokigawa's residence owns a Dagashi store, as shown in the series. "All-You-Can-Eat" restaurants and contests Literally called "Eating-A-Lot contests" (大食い コンテスト oogui kontesuto), these events are popular attractions in the big cities of Japan and a couple other countries. As both male and female can participate, the contestants would be challenged to eat serving sizes of food beyond the capacity of what normal people would eat in one sitting. It may seem easy for many just from hearing this, but true contestants would usually eat the volume of food just as fast and without any sign of fatigue, even if the size is five times more the original amount. Certain people are trained for this, and just as seen with Nana, they might as well not get fat at all after eating this monsterous meal. Certain restaurants run the same thing, except not as a competition against others, but against themselves. The usual rules for restaurants would be if the contestant doesn't finish the meal, they have to pay for what was made. If the contestant does finish the dish though, he or she is free of charge. Stand-up Comedy A common element for humor in Japanese series, stand-up comedy (漫才 コメディ- manzai comedii) is a type of comedy where there is two individuals involved: the right-minded man(ツッコミ tsukkomi) and the simple-minded man(ボケ boke). During an act, the boke would be forgetful or misinterpret something, resulting with the tsukkomi intervening and "correcting" the boke's errors. Usually when the tsukkomi intervenes, he would be a bit more harsh by using verbal strictness or physically hit the boke. A common prop used in manzai is the Harisen, a big folded fan. One good example of a manzai-scene in the series is when Nana is flustered when thinking that she would be alone with Touma at his house, when in actuality, she will only be visiting his home together with her friends. The tsukkomi here is Miyu, who uses an actual Harisen to knock Nana out of her romantic imaginations. In the overall series though, each character can become a tsukkomi or boke depending on the situation. Usual Pairings of Tsukkomi/Boke In-Series Tsukkomi in red; Boke in blue. *Emina'/'''Nana - anything related to Emina's brother, Touma, can lead Nana to go into dreamland and imagine romantic scenes, which Emina usually retorts to. The other heroines may become tsukkomi if Nana drifts a bit too far into her daydreams. *Everyone else than Nana'/'Nana - When it comes to eating, Nana is the queen. But because of her large eating habits, everyone retorts to two things: how she can eat so much and, even after eating so much, how does her body stay very nice and slim. *Nana'/'Emina - On two cases, Nana is the tsukkomi to Emina: when she talks about her little brother or when she slips on a word. While everyone else does tsukkomi at times when Emina goes into her "brother-complex" mode, all except Nana is already used to hearing Emina slipping on words such as "cahe" instead of "cafe" or "esprecho" instead of "espresso". *Everyone else than Emina'/'Emina - while not really a boke, whenever Emina reveals a scheme she had devised everyone into, all the girls retorts about her being a "devil". But on the other hand, whenever someone does mention that her character resembles a "little devil", she retorts that she is more like an "angel", which is sort of debatable. *Nana'/'Risa - If anything fujoshi comes out of Risa's mouth, Nana is usually the first to respond. Other members may or may not respond. *Anyone else than Miyu'/'Miyu - Miyu in the club is the all-around boke, except on the few occassions where she has "tsukkomi"-ed. Ranging from panty-flashing to forgetting certain belongings, Miyu is an unfortunate girl, which may be due to her lack of common sense. In such a case, everyone tends to tsukkomi. *Everyone else than Shizuka'/'Shizuka - Anything that is "modern age" is rather unfamiliar to Shizuka, who lacks the knowledge of technology or the recent trend. She rarely uses her cellphone (which she bought after getting into high school), knows only a few singing artists which do not include the popular ones, and doesn't understand any "modern" terms that is commonly used by teenagers. Because of this, some statements she makes that shows her lack of the "modern age" leads to some retorts. *Risa'/'Shizuka - Talking about "modern age", one of the biggest tsukkomi for Shizuka is possibly Risa, because of how Shizuka states that she doesn't like games. Even so, everytime the two plays a video game against each other, Shizuka is the winner, leading to more retorts by Risa as to why she is so good. Ryouma of the School's End of Showa Era Legend The manga series "Ryouma of the School's End of Showa Era Legend" (学園幕末伝リョ-マ ''gakuen bakumatsuden ryouma), sometimes mistakenly called "Ryuuma", is a series often referenced within this series, due to it being a hit series possibly as popular as Naruto or One-Piece in our world. The story revolves around the usual male protagonist who is accompanied by his female childhood friend, who is a student council member, and the mascot character, Irohamaru the ferret. While the manga is written by Emina's mother, the character design is by her father. Many characters throughout the series also is accompanied by an animal partner. Fujoshi The term "Fujoshi" (腐女子 fujoshi), which can be literally translated into "rotten girl", is a defining feature of one of the heroines, Risa Naguri. Fujoshi refers to a girl who is a fan of the yaoi, or male homosexualism, in manga or anime. In many cases, some Fujoshi's love to imagine pairings between males in the series, whether they are actually paired or not. Even the smallest "bromance" can trigger this switch in such girls, which includes Risa.